Multiple use of water for opium eradication

Shifting cultivation practised communities do not have sufficient land for irrigated paddy growing. Subsistence farming in highlands does not generate income: hence cash crop is the opium poppy cultivation. Communities engaged in shifting cultivation do change locations of villages periodically, in search of fertile land. These communities do not have access to: primary health care, water and environmental sanitation, schools, agriculture extension services etc. and high level of opium addiction persists amongst inhabitants. Provision of a pure and adequate supply of water coupled with environmental sanitation, introduction of primary health care with a first-aid box with medicines and community mobilization along with participatory approaches to development have changed the life styles and improved living standards. Use of water for: drinking purposes, environmental sanitation, power extraction for house lighting, for lift irrigation, including paddy cultivation and de-husking of paddy have tremendously contributed to rural development and eradication of opium poppy cultivation.